FG Urged To Review Air Freight Charges on Agro Commodities Export Sector.

An advice has gone out to the Federal Government on the need to implement a downward review on air freight charges for agricultural commodities as a necessary step towards enhancing the growth and development of agricultural export industry in Nigeria.

The proposed reduction on Air freight charges if implemented would go a long way to encourage farmers as product aggregators to increase upon their production capacity and ultimately attract more investments to the country’s agricultural sector.

Giving these admonitions recently was an agricultural expert, the Chief Executive Officer of ABX World, Mr John Okafor while speaking during an online media interview monitored in Lagos.

Okafor, who embarked on a critical assessment of developmental trends across Nigeria’s agricultural commodities sector observed that air freight charges for products export to  the US and some European countries was outrageously high when compared to air freight operating costs  obtainable in  corresponding countries of Africa including Ghana and Kenya.

According to him, In terms of land area, Nigeria was ten times larger in size than most countries of West and Eastern Africa, noting operational fees and taxes were much higher in the country than in most African countries. He added that the government needed to implement a reduction on air freight charges by bringing it at par with export operating costs in similar countries of the continent.

He explained further that owing to the current COVID 19 global pandemic air freight charges to European countries for instance had escalated from the original rate of $85,000 to about $250,000 presently, adding that while some other African countries such as Ghana and Kenya could afford the new charges, export operators in Nigeria could hardly afford the old rates neither are they able to compete favorably in the global export market”

He emphasized further that it was imperative that government should carry out a reduction on air freight charges, stressing that only by so doing would the farmers be encouraged as aggregators to increase production and attract investors.

Doing a comparative analysis on export production performance between Nigeria and countries in Europe, the ABX World helmsman observed that while Holland, a country of 17 million population and 42,000 land mass could make $100 million annually from agric exports adding Nigeria could do better if necessary conditions were put in place.

” Nigeria is 923 kilometer in land mass. Agricultural export industry in Nigeria can be as high as $250 billion a year. Am appealing to the government to please empower Nigerian agricultural farmers, empower those people, the aggregators who are ready”

“There so many products in Nigeria that are wanted in the world, but we are not in position to give it to them. Take Niger state for example, they are 72,000 square kilometers, almost twice of Holland, what are they exporting, nothing, zero. So we are looking into all this by setting up export zones within the federation to address all these issues”.

“We have what it takes. Nigerians are the smartest people on earth, you can’t argue that with me, but we just have to create policy that will make it convenient for our people to move forward” he added.